Trash day

After a few weeks away for work, it was nice to be back in Wisconsin to make progress on the kitchen! I was fortunate enough to have Good Friday as a paid holiday, so I made good progress with some of the final details.

Part of the kitchen plan was to hide the trash and recycling. Last June, we bought two trash bins that were sized appropriately for the new island cabinet. Over the holiday, I drew up plans in PTC Creo for this design. At last, I finally had time to work in the shop to build the trash pull-out. 

Here are some in-progress shots:

Pretty basic construction here: the horizontal parts to attach to the drawer front are attached with pocket screws. Sides are joined to the bottom with a simple rabbet joint with glue and brad nails. I ended up using all of my stationary equipment (save the jointer and planer) to make this happen (bandsaw, router table, table saw, and spindle sander).

Trash drawer frame, assembled

Glue-up of top divider to separate trash bins

I installed the drawer slides (the high-capacity, full-extension type) and fitted the trash drawer before applying finish:

Installed, awaiting finish

Installed, with trash cans in place

Attaching the painted door!

We opted for clear polyurethane instead of paint for this drawer. Still easy to clean but less hassle than painting. The only downside is that we started using this vacant drawer location for storing things like lunch bags. I guess we should think a little harder about where those should live now that they're being displaced!

Just a few things left to do: reinstalling the bench near the back door, finish trim work on the island and near the bench, patching in the drywall under the sink, and final paint touch-ups. Then we're done!